Decline in Rome

  • citizens of Rome fled their home because of poverty or death, and it made it difficult to collect tax
  • population drop from 1 million to 250,000, thus it made military recruitment hard
  • higher class were more focused on benefiting themselves instead of others
  • cultural decline, with writings on superstition beliefs that previous generations disapproved
  • higher class stop having off strings because the people thought babies were in the way of living their life
  • Diocletian ruled from 284 - 305 C.E, tried to improve tax collections and political loyalties. He also set up another capital city that lead to the splitting of the empire
  • With a separate empire it began the Byzantine Empire in the East
  • Fell towards invaders

Decline in China and India

  • Towards 100 C.E Han China began their decline with lazy rulers, where they just heavily tax free peasants
  • Civil War was because rebellions from The Yellow Turbans who were Doaist leaders that spoke out to people to have a golden age because of magic. The leaders would attack the weak of the rulers.
  • Regional rulers destroyed the unity of China
  • Gupta emperors ruling locally were declining
  • Constant invasions from Huns were disrupting central India
  • With regional rulers, India still continued to evolve but with outside influences people began to believe in new faiths
  • Class language, Sanskrit decline
  • Hinduism and caste system still lives on after the decline

Byzantine Empire
  • Byzantine Empire was the result of the decline in Rome; When it was split the eastern part became Byzantine
  • First ruled by Justinian( ~ 527 to 565 C.E) whose main goal was to recapture the past culture of Rome
  • Did not control a big chuck of land, where Parthian conquerors had taken over land that was once captured by Alexander the Great
  • Much of the Byzantine Culture was influenced by the Persian Empire
  • Christianity spread around the Mediterranean area; Augustine a bishop in north Africa could not benefit the people in North Africa with believing in Christianity
  • In North Africa there was a separate church; Coptic church in Egypt which still today is the minority of Africa
  • Christians scholars stop writing and much of the past isn't there because the people thought they could not write as well as Augustine, culture drop even as times improved